The present invention relates to a frame for supporting ornamental lights such as decorative simulated icicles that may be used during the holiday season.
Decorative lighting fixtures are becoming more sophisticated with every new holiday season. Gone are the days when simple blinking lights strung around trees would suffice to welcome Christmas and the New Year. Today there is a demand for more sophisticated lighting scenarios to adorn homes and buildings. With the demand for new lighting arrangements comes the need for newer and improved flexible frames to support these lighting arrangements and attachment devices to affix such frames to buildings and other structures.
A conventional lighting arrangement includes a cord containing a series of small light bulbs in a row which may be lengthened by plugging the cord into a subsequent cord also containing a series of small bulbs and so on until the desired length is achieved. The end cord is then plugged into an electrical outlet. Recently, frame displays have become available in which rigid frames allowing for numerous lengths of cords have been designed to allow for decorating an angled roof or a straight run of roof. Such frames are shown in Design Pat. No. 383,226 and 386,445. These new frames however do not have the flexibility and versatility to accommodate building structures that have both angled areas of different angles and straight runs in combination.
In addition to the increasing demand for more versatile lighting frames, there is a concurrent demand for improved ways and devices for attaching such frames to the building structure. Previously, numerous hooks and hangers for supporting cords and wires, particularly those with ornamental Christmas lights were available to adorn homes. Many of these hooks and hangers were permanently or semi-permanently affixed to the building structure. The installation of these devices was particularly time consuming and laborious and removal was equally complicated. In addition, these devices could not be rearranged at a later date to accommodate changes in the structure of the building or simply to rearrange for a different display of the lights.
Removable hooks such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,181, 827 wherein a clip designed to hold a cord with ornamental lights has an extended portion that fits between shingles and a clip portion that fits around a gutter are also commercially available. Such hooks have many advantages in that they are relatively easy to use and remove but may still be difficult to install onto gutters and other building fixtures. Other hooks that hold decorative lights are designed solely to fit between shingles such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 356,246 and 356,492, while some such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,192 are specially designed to mount onto a gutter.
In addition, some clips are now being designed to hold ornamental lights directly to either a shingle or gutter lip. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,669,709 relates to a decorative light holder having a base member with a first and second end in which the first end forms a hook having a spiral curvature and proximal point adjacent the base member that is adapted to be fit into a gutter and a second end that is adapted to be fit between overlapping shingles. The light holder also requires a light support that is separable from the base member and has at least one arm and an attaching member wherein the arm is configured to engage and hold a socket of a decorative light and the attaching member is adapted to secure the light support to the base member. This light holder was specifically designed to hold individual lights and prevent them from falling during inclement weather such as heavy winds.
None of the prior art permanent, semi-permanent, or removable hooks such as the ones described herein are designed to support versatile frames that hold numerous lighting arrangements. In addition, none of the clips or other suspension members now available are sufficiently versatile to suspend such elaborate ornamental works either from a shingle-edged or gutter edged roof.
There is a need for improved frames to support decorative lighting arrangements and attachment members to suspend such frames from a shingle or gutter of a building structure. In addition, there is a need for an assembly having in combination an improved frame and attachment members to be used in building structures that have both angled areas particularly where they are of varying angles and straight runs.